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Hardworking Fed Moves To Two-Day Meetings

Think of it as a sign of the times.

The Federal Reserve said today that all of its policymaking meetings this year will last for two days, The Post's Neil Irwin reports.

Normally, the Federal Open Market Committee, which meets eight times a year, alternates between one-day meetings and two-day meetings.

But now the Fed is facing one of the greatest sets of challenges in its 95-year existence -- trying to contain the recession, manage its dozens of programs that are trying to inject cash in the economy and a $2 trillion balance sheet, and chart its course in an overhaul of how the financial regulation.

So it makes sense that the heads of 12 regional Fed banks around the country would need a little more time to meet with their colleagues in Washington to figure it all out.